Blog & News

PropertyMutual brings you industry relevant headlines and comment.

The sale of two large Berkshire farms brings 1,500 acres of arable land to the market.
Fishers Farm near Hungerford has 550 acres of arable land at offers in excess of £9.5m (TBC Tuesday) as a whole or in five lots. This is served by a 1,500t grain store, while the farm also has 26 acres of let grass and 36 acres of woodland.

The government claims that over 36,000 new home owners have been created through Right to Buy since 2012.
Figures released by the Department of Communities and Local Government show that - by contrast - 3,357 new home starts and acquisitions have been made over the same period. That’s under 10 per cent of the number sold.

The government has wasted little time in honouring manifesto pledges over giving local communities a greater say over onshore wind farm projects and axing subsidies for them.
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has announced new planning rules, in the guise of new policy measures, which took effect from 18 June.
Under these new provisions councils should only grant permission for wind turbines in their area if the site is in an area identified as suitable for wind energy as part of a local or neighbourhood plan and following consultation, the planning impacts identified by affected local communities have been fully addressed and therefore have their backing.

UK rental costs are the highest in Europe but homeowners are benefiting from cheap mortgages, data suggests.
Tenants typically spend 39.1% of their income on rent compared with a European average of 28%, figures from the National Housing Federation suggest.

There has been a strong reaction against proposals to reform the ownership of estates and other substantial land holdings in Scotland.
The Scottish government says around half of all the privately-owned land in Scotland is controlled by just 432 people and it has launched proposals which include ending tax relief for shooting estates and forcing the sale of land if owners are blocking economic development.

Property sales data has provided more evidence that the UK housing market is moving more slowly than a year ago.
A total of 98,540 homes were sold in May, seasonally-adjusted figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) show, down 3% on a year earlier.

The Scottish government has fired the starting gun for a summer of debate over its long-awaited Land Reform Bill.
The Bill was published on Tuesday (23 June) by Scotland’s land reform minster, Aileen McLeod.

ACCOMMODATION for 502 students in Liverpool and Stoke-on-Trent has been bought by listed company Empiric Student Property in a deal worth a total of £41.6m.
London-based Empiric has bought the properties from Urban Sleep for £22.8m and has taken on the existing debt on them of £18.8m.

A £300m fund designed to unlock stalled residential schemes across Greater Manchester will officially open for business next month.
The Greater Manchester Housing Fund was created as part of the region’s devolution agenda and is a cornerstone of the ambition to create a new wave of high quality homes of all types and tenures.

New onshore wind farms will be excluded from a subsidy scheme from 1 April 2016, a year earlier than expected.
There will be a grace period for projects which already have planning permission, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said.
Energy firms had been facing an end to subsidies in 2017.